Baby Summary: Week 25

Everything is still good. She is a little faster. She probably takes about ten minutes per feeding these days, but I don't really keep track anymore.

NIGHTIME SLEEP

This continues to be the same and wonderful. I still wake her up at eight each morning.

SOLIDS

This week I introduced McKenna to her first green vegetable: peas. She liked them.

ROLLING

This week we had two rolling disruptions during sleep. They both came in the morning. The first one was at 6:50 AM. I heard her crying, which I thought was odd. I looked on my video monitor (love it!) and she was on her belly. I went up to her and rolled her on to her back. She went back to sleep and slept until eight when I woke her up.

The next time was a few days later. It was 7:15. Again, I went to her and rolled her on to her back. I didn't know if she would go back to sleep since it was pretty close to morning waketime. Well, she did. She is super baby.

DREAMFEED

We still have the dreamfeed.

FOUR HOUR SCHEDULE

Are you wondering where the big change is? Here it is. We are on a four hour schedule. Yes, I know. We haven't dropped the dreamfeed. Yes, I know. I have told many, many, many of you to drop the dreamfeed FIRST.

I still think that is the best thing to do (drop the dreamfeed before moving to a four hour schedule). We had many extenuating circumstances that led to this:

We are moving soon and I really felt like I needed to keep the dreamfeed until after we were settled in our new house.

She was ready to drop a feeding and thus the end of our day was really crammed in there.

We were painting.

Painting is what led to this schedule. The first day of this week, we started painting our new house. We had lots of friends and family come over and we were painting like crazy. McKenna was at my parent's house where my mom was watching her. I completely last track of time and McKenna kept on sleeping (like she always does) so that a feeding came an hour late in the evening. Because of that, I couldn't cram in the last feedings like I usually do. So I decided that day was a four hour schedule.

Well, that was smooth and so much more convenient for our working-on-the-house schedule. So I just decided to keep going with the four hour schedule. She did great. My current plan is to keep the dreamfeed until after we have been in our new house for 1-2 weeks.

Again, I still think it is preferable to drop the dreamfeed first. But you always have to do what is best for the entire family. We were in a special situation that this really worked better for us. I don't think it will cause any long-term problems :). I haven't seen any short-term problems.

I also think that often times if your baby is older than four months old and still has a dreamfeed and not yet on a four hour schedule, she will be ready to both drop the dreamfeed and move to a four hour schedule at the same time. With Kaitlyn, I dropped the dreamfeed and moved to a four hour schedule a couple of days later. It is risky to do it that way because is baby has problems, you won't be sure if it is because of the dreamfeed, four hour schedule, or both.

OUR SCHEDULE

8:00 AM: I wake her. Nurse. 2 T fruit (prunes or peaches) and 3 T oatmeal. This is followed by bath and then independent playtime.

9:00 AM: Nap

12:00 PM: I wake her (yes, she takes a 3 hour nap). Nurse. 2-4 T peas and 2-4 T of bananas. This is followed by some time with siblings and some tummy time/floor play.

1:15-1:30 PM: Nap. Almost every day this week, she took this nap at my parent's house.

4:00 PM: I wake her. Nurse. 4 T yellow veggie, 2 T fruit (usually peaches), and 4 T oatmeal. This is followed by us going to our new house to work on it. I would put her in the front carrier or in the bouncer. Some days, she and I would drive to pick up food for the workers.

6:00 PM: Nap. This was taken in my new neighbors master bedroom closet in her bassinet.

8:00 PM: I wake her. Some nights she woke on her own. She sleeps so well! I never expected her to sleep well there. They have six kids, so you know things just get really loud sometimes. The girl can sleep. Nurse and then back to bed at home.

10:20 or 10:30 PM: Dreamfeed.

I would ideally like the last feeding to start at 7:30 so she can be in bed by 8:00, but for right now, it is good for me to have that extra 30 minutes to work on the house. We are still figuring out our perfect 4 hour schedule.

18 comments

Hi there -- I love your blog and also just got my baby on a 4 hour schedule. I'm just wondering if my baby is nappying enough because it seems like your baby is sleeping a lot during the day. My baby wakes at 7am, naps for 1 hour at 9.30, naps again for 2 hours at 1.30 and sometimes a catnap at 5.30pm. She's almost 8 months. Does your baby really take two 3-hours naps and one 2-hour nap everyday? That is impressive...

Do you have any suggestions for keeping 5 feedings in a day when I switch my LO to a 4 hour schedule w/a starting time to the day at 7am (this is w/out the dreamfeed as well). I would really like to keep 5 nursings a day to keep up my milk supply, but I'm not quite sure how to work in the 5th feeding. Babywise mentions some mom's may need to keep up 5 or 6 nursing periods a day on a four hour schedule, but it doesn't give much guidance as to how. Thanks!

I've been trying to implement BW from day one with my son, he's now 4 weeks old and eats on a fairly predictable schedule.

However, getting him to go to sleep during the day is a huge, constant battle. Every day when he shows his very first fussy/drowsy signs, I try to get him down. Usually he'll go down peacefully for about 5 minutes and then start writhing (flexing his body, arching his back, etc.) and crying. I've tried to leave him for 5 minutes, even 10, to see what he does, but he just becomes inconsolable and would cry until his next feeding if I didn't do something. And, at 4 weeks, I don't feel as though I can just let him go like that.

I've tried the 5s too, but every time I lay him down, it's the same 5 minute calm and then crying routine. We've had days where soothing is impossible and he's up for 3-4 straight hours with maybe 1/2 an hour of sleep - which I'm sure is MUCH too long for such a newborn! I worry about him getting enough sleep, so I do almost anything I can to get him to sleep - including everything you are not supposed to do (holding him while he sleeps, sleeping in the swing, etc.)

I know he's still young (4 weeks), and BW isn't overly implementable (is that word? :) But I wondered if you had any suggestions to make this sleep transition easier, because I forsee it being a problem as he continues to get older.

My daughter, 6 months, has been on a 4 hour schedule for a while. She is eating solids and is not waking in the middle of the night.

Because of our new schedule, she goes to daycare three days a week. They are trying to implement my schedule, but her naps are compromised. She can't get her third nap in because that is when I pick her up, so she is in bed exhausted by 6:30 pm.

Then she is up in the morning anywhere from 5:30 to 6:30 am. She will play in her crib until we get her, but then because of commutes she doesn't get her morning nap till 9:00, which is usually an hour and a half. She then goes down between 12:30 and 1:00 and sleeps for another hour and a half.

When will she be able to go to bed later? I would like for her to sleep till 7, but I know that she can't make it past 6:30, she is beat!

Our son is 15 weeks old and still not sleeping through the night. He is on a 3 hour cycle, naps okay (30-60 minutes each) throughout the day, was going to bed at 6:30pm and would wake up around 6:30am next day with 1-2 night wakings. We weren't doing a DF because we started BW late (about a month ago). Recently we thought if we move his bedtime to 8pm and add in a feed at that time perhaps he would STTN, but actually he has started waking up more (5 times last night!) and gets up earlier in the morning - around 5am. I have a really difficult time judging when he is hungry and so not sure when to let it go. Therefore if he is hysterical after my husband tries to soothe him first (which is most the time) then I feed him. I'm just not sure where to go from here. We're considering adding in an extra 3-hour cycle and putting him to bed at 9:30pm. Any thoughts???? He also has reflux so we haven't been doing CIO yet.

I'm curious about moving towards a 4hr sched. My guy is 23 weeks. He's on a pretty consistent 3hr, but sometimes it might vary from 2.5-3.5. He feeds at 8/11/3/7/8:30/DF@10:30-11, with solids coming at 11 and usually around 4-5. He naps great, usually 3 1-2hour, and one in the evening for about 30-45 mins. I haven't moved him to 4 hours b/c he has yet to STTN. He usually wakes anywhere from 4-6 and takes a full feeding (BFing)...I know you aren't supposed to move them to a longer sched until they're STTN....Should I force him to drop that early morning feed by doing CIO? Or will he just do this on his own? I appreciate your thoughts. Congrats on your new home!

Hi-I am sure I will probably figure this out before you get to responding to this, but here goes anyway. I juat had my third child after my youngest was 7. I have forgotten some of Babywise. I do not have the materials anymore as we thought we were done. But God had other plans which we are now very grateful. Anyway, I have a five month old and 10 day old baby girl. She has been doing 3.5 schedule for quite awhile except morning feeding which was four. I guess I was doing the dreamfeeding at 9:30 after reading your blog. We had five feedings a day. She started solids right before 5 months and did awesome. Today she slept to 8:00 instead of 7:00 and has gone four hours consistently all day. At 4:00 I feed her her bottle only-I think I gooofed and should have fed her dinner with one last bottle at 8:00-but then that means I dropped the dreamfeeding and moved to a four hour schedule all at once. That is too scary. She has been sleeping through the night for a long time and I do not want to mess that up. So I am trying to figure out what to do-do I feed her dinner at 8:00 and then another dreamfeeding at 10:00 if she takes it. The problem with that is is that she is used to going to bed at 7:30-8:00. this is how it used to look like:7:00-eat rice cereal with fruit, bottlewake time8:30-nap11:00-eat veggies and fruit, bottlewaketime12:30-nap2:30-bottlewaketime4:00-nap6:00-rice cereal, veggies, and fruit, bottlewaketime-with bath, story, etc.7:30-8:00-down for the night9:30-wake up halfway just to eat bottle, right back to bed.Now what do I do this is how today looked:8:00-eat10:00 nap-then it got interrupted and she stayed awake til 12:0012:00-ate1:00-nap4:00-bottle only-now what?Help.She fell alseep around 6:15-6:30I think I will try waking her and feeding her dinner around 7:30, giving her a bath, etc. then putting her to bed for the night. I guess I will see how well she eats at 7:30 on whether to give her the dream feed bottle or not.Thanks,Amy

Alyssa, he is most likely overly tired when you are putting him down. His cues you are following are probably "too late" cues rather than "just right" cues. I would try for a shorter waketime. Even now at almost 7 weeks, he should have at most 1 hour. 45 minutes might be appropriate for him. See the blog label "optimal waketime length for more."

Also, as a newborn, your first goal should just be that he sleeps when it is time to sleep. It is great if he will fall sleep on his own, but I think it is more important that he sleeps at sleeping times right now.

What I would do is have her take a catnap at 6:30. Then get her up and give her a final feeding and put her to bed at your desired bedtime. In a few months, she should be able to make it longer. McKenna doesn't start her third nap until 6 or 6:30, either. I just get her up in time for her last feeding. It makes it more like a "dreamfeed" because she is just up, eats, pjs, story, bed, but it works.

Wendy, he is likely waking in the night due to being overly tired with a later bedtime. I would move bedtime back up. I would then either add a dreamfeed or just accept that he will be getting up in the night longer than babies without.

Be sure to see the blog label "reflux" for thoughts on that.

Also, he is approaching the 4 month mark, which is a hard time for all babies. Hang in there!

Adrienne nicole, some do well with CIO. Others do it on their own :) I don't like to CIO in the middle of the night and never have, but it is definitely an option. If you do that, I would suggest you first lessen what he eats at that time. I would feed just one side. Then I would feed less time on that one side. That way he can adjust what he takes in the day first. See also the post "early morning feedings before waketime"

Amy (McKenzie), your plan sounds good. You can look at my current schedule to see how I am doing the four hour with the dreamfeed at the same time. I basically feed the last feeding at 8, then wake her at 10 for a dreamfeed. It isn't idea, but it works :)

My little one is 6 weeks, and because I had to supplement my LO has somehow gotten on a four hour scedule. Is this too soon, should I back it up. His awake time is only about 50 min.Some naps are the entire rest of the session until the next feeding, but some are not. Any advice??